Wednesday, September 9, 2015

Sanders Working Hard in New Hampshire

MANCHESTER, N.H. — Buoyed by new polls showing him leading his party’s first-in-the-nation primary, US Senator Bernie Sanders campaigned Monday across the Granite State, focusing much of his message on workers’ rights at Labor Day activities.

“Our job is to reach out and create a political movement of which the trade union will be the center,” said Sanders, who gave the keynote address at a packed state AFL-CIO breakfast at Saint George Greek Orthodox Cathedral.Trade unions brings memories of Communism.

Sanders was one of a handful of presidential candidates who crisscrossed New Hampshire on Monday. Before Sanders spoke, surrogates for nearly all of the major Democratic candidates addressed the crowd.

Meanwhile, the Vermonter’s chief rival for the Democratic nod, former US secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton, spent the day campaigning in Iowa.

It was good timing for Sanders. A new NBC News-Marist poll showed him leading by 9 percent among New Hampshire primary voters — up 7 percent since July. Sanders’s campaign recently added 37 full-time staffers, more than eight times their amount in August, according to a weekend campaign conference call reported by the Concord Monitor.

Clinton has fallen 15 percent among New Hampshire primary voters compared to another NBC News-Marist Poll taken in July.Better read through those e-mails, 'er, tea leaves again.

Sanders has been slow to spar with Clinton on the campaign trail. But at the breakfast, he alluded to his growing popularity among voters and other candidates with deeper pockets.

“Our campaign is seeing a great deal of energy and enthusiasm,” Sanders said at the breakfast. “But you are looking at a candidate that will be outspent . . . this is a people’s campaign and we’re going to win this election.”

Throughout the day, Sanders, a self-described socialist, advocated for raising the minimum wage, increasing youth employment and education, and reining in the perceived greed of corporate capitalism.What about the war machine?

“There has already been a mass redistribution of wealth, the problem is that it has gone the wrong direction . . . the federal minimum wage of $7.25 cents an hour is a starvation wage,” Sanders said, calling for a $15 minimum wage.

Later, at the Milford Labor Day parade in southern New Hampshire, area voters reacted to his populist message. Sanders led a group of nearly 100 campaign volunteers through Milford streets, only stopping to shake hands and take pictures with residents on the sidewalk.

Chantille Conversano, 30, a native of Milford, N.H., flipped her support from Clinton to Sanders earlier this year. She said family, friends, and “everyone she knows” has decamped from Clinton to embrace the Vermont senator.

“I have goosebumps,” Conversano said after shaking Sanders’s hand. “I’m really excited and I feel confident. I was thinking of skipping the parade this year, but he’s why I’m here.”

As she was talking, Sanders turned to his large group of vocal supporters to acknowledge a new chant.

“Hey hey! Ho ho! Corporate greed has got to go!” they yelled.

Sanders replied with a thumbs up.

And at the parade, presidential politics flooded the scene, with more than 10 major candidates from both parties represented with supporters, literature, and signs.

Throughout the weekend, candidates bombarded the state’s holiday festivities. Three GOP hopefuls attended the Milford parade: US Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, former Hewlett-Packard chief executive Carly Fiorina, and Governor John Kasich of Ohio.

Meanwhile, Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin spent the weekend riding a Harley-Davidson motorcycle throughout the state’s sunny mountain highways, driving from Coos County south to Salem.

Frank Huard of Hudson, a 52-year-old undecided independent, said it was too much, too soon for politics.

“I’m not even thinking about any of this,” Huard said. “I’ll probably start later in the fall or early winter.”

Huard was wearing one sticker supporting Kasich and one sticker supporting Sanders. He was holding a pamphlet for Republican neurosurgeon Ben Carson.

“At some point I’ll start weeding out the bad and find the people I disagree with the most,” Huard said. “But now, it doesn’t mean anything. It’s like those preseason polls for sports teams.”

This keeps Sanders supporters cautious. New Hampshire primary voters are notoriously fickle and the race is still early, they said.And after the wild vote swing in 2008 in favor of Hillary.... those machines.

David Weisel of Richmond said he was participating in his first “Bernie walk.” Kim Patterson, 57, from Norwood, Mass., rejoiced over Sanders’s new polling lead. But she said she is just now looking for more ways to get involved.

“I feel like we’re changing as a nation and I can be part of it,” Patterson said.Oh, another change candidate.

The rhetoric of Sanders and his supporters, who use words like “revolution” and “transforming America,” is what led 69-year-old Pat Osterland to support Clinton. A good president compromises with others and reaches across the political aisle, Osterland said, calling Sanders too rigid in his views.

“Right now, people are angry and he has an appeal,” Osterland said. “But as we get closer and more information starts coming out, it will show that candidates like [Sanders] do not achieve what they want to achieve.”None of the candidates achieve the rhetoric, Obummer being the latest example. Of course, it's in bad taste to get angry about the mass-murdering wars based on lies, bank looting schemes, and other f*** jobs put forth by the powerful -- unless that's to angry for you as my stomach flips over as I painfully type.

Osterland sat under a tree, wearing a homemade “Hoofing for Hillary” sign and fanning herself from the 90-degree temperatures in Milford.

NEW YORK — Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has pulled ahead of Hillary Rodham Clinton among New Hampshire primary voters in an NBC/Marist poll released Sunday.

Forty-one percent of potential Democratic voters polled said they support Sanders, 32 percent chose Clinton, and 16 percent said they would support Vice President Joe Biden. When pollsters excluded Biden, who has yet to decide whether he will run, Sanders’s lead over Clinton grew to double digits — 49 percent to 38 percent.

The Vermont senator’s support is up markedly since July’s NBC News/Marist poll. In that survey, Sanders trailed Clinton 47 percent to 34 percent.

New Hampshire will hold the nation’s first presidential primary of 2016, after the Iowa caucuses.

The new poll results come as Sanders continues to draw large crowds on the campaign trail and as Clinton remains under scrutiny for her use of private e-mail while secretary of state.

**************

In Iowa, which holds the first caucuses, the NBC/Marist survey showed Clinton leading Sanders 38 percent to 27 percent. Her advantage there has narrowed since July, from 24 percentage points to 11. A week ago, a Des Moines Register-Bloomberg Politics poll showed the Iowa race even closer, with Clinton ahead 37 percent to 30 percent.

Former governor Martin O'Malley of Maryland, who is trailing Clinton and Sanders in the polls, has been aggressive in directly criticizing them. He regularly calls himself a ‘‘lifelong Democrat,’’ in contrast with the independent Sanders. And he has referred to the e-mail controversy dogging Clinton.All I can think of when I see him is Baltimore.

Campaigning in Portsmouth, N.H., during the weekend Clinton addressed several campaign subjects but never mentioned her key primary rival. Sanders, who was campaigning in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, did not refer to Clinton or any other Democratic primary opponent.

Despite tightening polls, the two leading candidates refuse to draw sharp contrasts, let alone criticize each other, leaving voters to discern the differences in their agendas and priorities largely on their own.

The intensifying Democratic race could lead to more direct engagement between Clinton and Sanders. The first debate, set for Oct. 13, is expected to showcase their differences.

Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta, told reporters last week, ‘‘The ideas that she’s put out, we feel very confident, contrast with the ideas of the other Democrats, including Senator Sanders.’’

Podesta did not elaborate on the areas in which Clinton believes she differs from Sanders. But he highlighted several key policy proposals, including plans to combat drug and alcohol addiction and reduce student loan debt.

Analysts sayClinton is trying not to alienate Sanders’ supporters. If nominated, she will need their votes and enthusiasmin the general election.

The former secretary of state has more foreign policy experience than Sanders but rarely mentions it on the stump....Yeah, foreign policy hasn't come up much other than are you with Israel against Iran.

WASHINGTON — International rivals would be mistaken to assume he wouldn’t be prepared to use military force if that’s what circumstances required, Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said in an interview that aired on Sunday.

The Vermont senator says the United States should have the strongest military in the world. The United States should be prepared to act when it or its allies are threatened or in response to genocide.Unless it's the EUSraeli Empire and its allies doing the genocide.

‘‘Yes, there are times when you have to use force. No question about it,’’ Sanders said. ‘‘But that should be a last resort.’’

During his nearly 25 years in Congress, Sanders’ record on authorizing military force is mixed. He voted to send troops to Afghanistan after the Sept. 11 attacks. But he voted against going to war with Iraq in 1991 and again in 2003.The votes line up right, but let's face it. He's Jewish and a big backer of Israel. I suppose that is to be expected, and maybe we should take off the mask and have a Jewish chief executive. They own most of Congre$$ anyway. Other bloggers have looked into Bernie on the Palestinian question and found him woefully lacking. He's the 2016 version of Ron Paul, saying all the right things, etc, but I've been here before. Fool me once, shame on, shame on you, fool me.... we can't get fooled again. Didn't somebody once say that?

Sanders comments came during an interview that aired on ABC’s ‘‘This Week.’’ His campaign has focused on the economy and gained momentum. His chief rival for the Democratic nomination, Hillary Rodham Clinton, served as secretary of state for about four years.

Sanders was asked why national security and foreign policy are missing from his campaign’s website.

‘‘In all fairness, we’ve only been in this race for three-and-a-half months. And we’ve been focusing, quite correctly as you’ve indicated, on the economy, on the collapse of the American middle class, on massive income and wealth inequality,’’ Sanders said.

Sanders cited the Iraq war as one of the ‘‘worst foreign policy blunders we have ever seen’’ because it led to an enormous destabilization of that region.

Yeah, well, we all know who pushed us into and who helped. You just can't say it. It's considered bad taste.

--more--"I've got some work to do this morning so I don't how Globe garbage I'll be able to shovel at you today. I have yet to even read the Metro or Bu$ine$$ sections, and there really looks to be no need either. In fact, I had intended to take the whole day off because I didn't like what I saw from the get-go (two Brady articles -- with another sketch in the Metro -- and the Sampson case I don't care about above the fold). I might be patching in some things that I care completely nothing about, and am scanning more than reading them these days. Not working very hard, am I?

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